TORONTO— Say this for Russell Westbrook: It’s only fitting that someone who embodies Kobe Bryant’s ceaseless competitiveness would take home the MVP award in Bryant’s final All-Star game.
Westbrook-ASG Russell Westbrook scored 31 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five assists to take home his second straight MVP award in a 196-173 win— a record number of points in the game and for the winning team— for the West over the East on Sunday night at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.
“That’s

TORONTO– Khris Middleton, like the Milwaukee Bucks’ season to date, was a disappointment in Saturday night’s 3-point shooting contest and afterward shared his thoughts on what could be a week of change for the Bucks franchise.
“With the trade deadline, you never know what could pop up, who gets traded and who stays,” Middleton told SheridanHoops in a one-on-one interview in a crowded Air Canada Centre. “As far as right now, we’re all going to be there.”
In terms of what roles

TORONTO– Carmelo Anthony is sick and tired of losing with the Knicks, but not yet tired enough to do something about it. Or so he says.
New York stands at 23-32 at the All-Star break, 12th in the Eastern Conference. Unless the Knicks’ fortunes change rather dramatically over the final 27 games of the regular season, Anthony will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
“It’s tough,” Anthony told a horde of reporters in the basement of the Sheraton in downtown

All-Star Weekend didn’t start out too well for my son, Andrew.
On Friday morning, he had an argument with his first serious girlfriend a day before his first serious Valentine’s Day. With that hanging over his head, he had to go to work, where his primary job is to kick mallrats out of the store. And it was the last work day before the All-Star Game and we still hadn’t heard from someone who had said that maybe, just maybe, he

Aside from the expected festivities, the Dunk Contest, Three-Point Contest, Skills Challenge, BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge and the All-Star game, the NBA All-Star weekend brings with it ample time to either rest or stay busy with promotional opportunities.
While many will be resting for the second half of the season, a number of NBA athletes are choosing the latter, opting to do a number various promotional activities.
Atlanta Hawks power forward Paul Millsap stopped by the Samsung Soho Studio to meet

The 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend is well behind us, in the rearview mirror as we streak away towards the end of the regular season and the NBA Playoffs.
For some teams the playoffs may be out of reach. The New York Knicks, for instance, are only six games back of the 8th-seed with 25 games remaining. However, with only two wins in their last 10 outings and the team in effective disarray—Raymond Felton facing gun charges, Metta World Peace being released,

All Star Weekend begins today.
Starting off with the NBA Rising Stars Challenge, most NBA players will finally get some time to recuperate and prepare for the home stretch of the regular season, where much more than a spot in the All Star festivities will be on the line.
It couldn’t come at a better time for some of the top bench players in the NBA. With injuries, streaky play, or sometimes a combination being a factor, a number of players have

With just two games remaining on the NBA schedule before All-Star Weekend — Heat/Thunder, Clippers/Lakers tonight on TNT — most of the league has shifted its focus towards this weekends festivities in Houston.
Today’s case study, Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets, who will be a participant in Saturday nights featured event, the Slam Dunk Contest. [Read more…]